Children's Home run by Cambian Childcare Limited in Halton

Inspection report children’s home: SC457183 1 SC457183 Registered provider: Cambian Childcare Limited Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

A private company owns this home. It is registered to provide care and accommodation for one child or young person who may have behavioural and/or emotional difficulties.

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Information about this children’s home

There is currently one child living in the home and they were spoken to as part of the inspection.

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Information about this children’s home

Due to COVID-19 (coronavirus), at the request of the Secretary of State, we suspended all routine inspections of social care providers on 17 March 2020.

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Information about this children’s home

We last visited this setting on 15 and 16 December 2020 to carry out an assurance visit. A further monitoring visit was completed on 2 February 2021. These reports are published on our website.

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Overall experiences and progress of

children and young people, taking into account

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inadequate

How well children and young people are helped and protected inadequate

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inadequate

The effectiveness of leaders and managers inadequate

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inadequate

There are serious and/or widespread failures that mean children and young people are not protected or their welfare is not promoted or safeguarded, and the care and experiences of children and young people are poor and they are not making progress.

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inadequate

Date of last inspection: 4 December 2019

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inadequate

Overall judgement at last inspection: Good Inspection report children’s home: SC457183 2

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Enforcement action since last inspection:

The home had an assurance visit on the 15 to 16 December 2020. The visit found that the arrangements for safeguarding children were inadequate. The acting manager and staff were not fully aware of their roles and responsibilities in relation to protecting children, and effective action was not always taken when there was serious concern about a child’s welfare. Three compliance notices were issued under section 22A of the Care Standards Act 2000. These related to regulation 12, the protection of children standard; regulation 13, the leadership and management standard; and regulation 40, notification of a serious event.

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Enforcement action since last inspection:

On 2 February 2021, a monitoring visit was completed to assess the progress made by the home regarding the compliance notices. At this visit, the inspector found that the provider had taken steps to improve the staff’s responses to safeguarding concerns, and that the management arrangements had improved. Therefore, the compliance notices were found to be met. Inspection report children’s home: SC457183 3

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

04/12/2019 Full Good 04/07/2018 Full Good 17/01/2018 Interim Sustained effectiveness 07/06/2017 Full Good Inspection report children’s home: SC457183 4

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inadequate

Not all children have benefited from a detailed impact risk assessment or a robust assessment of their needs before moving into the home. For example, a child moved into the home a few days prior to the inspection, but the impact risk assessment, care plan and risk management plans were not in place for this child. This was contrary to the provider’s own admissions policy and procedure, and did not ensure that there had been a thorough appraisal of the child’s needs.

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inadequate

Leaders and managers have offered placements to individual children without assessing their care needs or considering if the staff have the skills and experience to keep the children safe and support them to achieve positive outcomes. Therefore, children who have lived in the home have not made progress, and have experienced short placements due to staff not being able to keep them safe. This contributes to children experiencing instability, change and disruption.

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inadequate

The home requires maintenance and repairs to ensure that it provides a comfortable, safe and homely living environment for the child who is living there. There was evidence of damaged walls, damaged kitchen cupboards and a damaged garage door. The child’s room was extremely untidy, with clothes and items on the floor, even though the child had only moved into the home days earlier.

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inadequate

There is evidence that the individual children who live in this home do not receive the necessary support to access education. One child who recently left the home did not engage in any form of education or training. This has been a pattern for previous children who have lived in the home.

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How well children and young people are helped and protected: inadequate

Children are not being safeguarded because the responsible individual, acting manager and staff do not fully understand their roles and responsibilities in safeguarding children. They have failed to follow safeguarding procedures and have not taken immediate action to safeguard children. For example, a 12-year-old child was found heavily intoxicated. Staff failed to seek immediate medical attention and only took action several hours later when the child’s health deteriorated. In addition, despite another child’s risk management plan stating that staff must seek immediate action if the child returned home under the influence of any unknown substances, staff failed to take action. Consequently, children are not appropriately safeguarded by the adults who are caring for them.

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How well children and young people are helped and protected: inadequate

Leaders and managers have agreed placements for children without adequately identifying and assessing each child’s social, physical, emotional, and mental health needs, and the strategies required to keep the children safe. Consequently, Inspection report children’s home: SC457183 5 children’s risk-taking behaviour has escalated, and children have been placed at risk of harm.

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How well children and young people are helped and protected: inadequate

Risk management plans are of a poor quality. These plans prevent the staff from having a clear understanding of the child’s needs and vulnerabilities. In addition, although a new child had been living at the home for several days, there were no clear care plans and risk management plans in place. Staff were unable to explain to the inspectors what the current and known risks factors are for the child, and what strategies are in place to keep her safe. This is a further safeguarding concern.

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How well children and young people are helped and protected: inadequate

Recording in the home is poor and lacks accountability to ensure that children are being safeguarded and their needs are being met. The responsible individual and the acting manager were not aware of the extent of the safeguarding concerns identified at the visit. There is insufficient management oversight of the quality of care. In addition, records of incidents are unclear, or have been mislaid, and fail to provide an accurate account of what has occurred. Some records are inconsistent and do not include information that should alert managers to the fact that further enquiry is necessary. However, on several occasions, this information has not been identified as needing further investigation. This fails to safeguard all involved.

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How well children and young people are helped and protected: inadequate

The location risk assessment does not include other professionals’ feedback to allow for a full understanding of key risks in the local area. Therefore, risks in the local area in relation to child sexual exploitation and criminal exploitation have not been fully assessed, despite these being known risks to children who live in the home. This means that effective strategies for keeping children safe in the local community have not been implemented.

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How well children and young people are helped and protected: inadequate

When children have gone missing from the home, staff have followed the agreed protocol. However, one child went missing from the home a significant number of times, but did not consistently have independent return home interviews completed on their return. This reduced the opportunity to understand the reasons why the child was going missing, and to help the child learn how to keep safe.

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How well children and young people are helped and protected: inadequate

Shortfalls were found in relation to fire safety. There are outstanding actions from a recent fire risk assessment which have not been carried out. There has been an incident of a child trying to set fire to the bannister of the home and also smoking in his bedroom. Additionally, children are not consistently shown the fire drill when they move into the home. These shortfalls leave the children at risk in the event of a fire.

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How well children and young people are helped and protected: inadequate

In Ofsted’s view, the shortfalls highlighted demonstrate that safeguarding practice in the home is a serious concern, and does not effectively manage and minimise the risks to children and staff or protect them from harm. Inspection report children’s home: SC457183 6

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

There is currently no registered manager for the home. The registered manager left the home in February 2020. The home is currently being managed by an acting manager who has been in post since August 2020. However, the application to register as manager was only received in March 2021. The manager also acts as manager for one of the company’s other homes. Despite the changes made following the monitoring visit in February 2021 and recent compliance notices, there is evidence that these changes have not been sustained. The same shortfalls have been identified during this inspection.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The leaders and managers have failed to demonstrate that they inspire and lead a culture that helps children aspire to fulfil their potential, and is consistent with the aims outlined in the statement of purpose. A child who previously lived in the home had a history of going missing. This child continued to go missing while living at this home, and therefore remained at risk of exploitation. Leaders and managers have failed to implement appropriate boundaries and routines for children, and the children’s safety has not been prioritised.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The responsible individual and acting manager have failed to assess the risks to each child, and have not put arrangements in place to protect them effectively. . The acting manager has not introduced new strategies when the existing measures fail to reduce the risk to a child. This is not protecting the child adequately and their needs have not been met.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The responsible individual and acting manager are not ensuring that all staff are suitably skilled or trained to meet the needs of the children in their care. For example, only two staff members have received training in relation to substance misuse, despite this being a known risk for the child who recently moved into the home. This does not demonstrate that staff have the skills and training to be able to safely support the child.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

There is an inconsistent and inexperienced staff team working in the home. Some staff were not able to safely meet the needs of the child who previously lived in the home, and asked the acting manager if they could complete their shifts elsewhere. This does not provide children with a consistent, stable staff team that can fully meet their needs.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

There are gaps in the home’s monitoring and review systems. For example, the independent visitor has identified a number of significant concerns that have not yet been addressed. These shortfalls prevent progress from being made in the home and fail to ensure that the quality of care improves.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The responsible individual has failed to maintain effective oversight in the home, despite the previous concerns raised by inspectors and subsequent compliance action. The manager and responsible individual have failed to understand their roles Inspection report children’s home: SC457183 7 and responsibilities, and have not ensured that the child receives effective care and is safe while living in the home.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Leaders and managers failed to notify Ofsted about a serious incident in which a child was found under the influence of an unknown substance and was consequently taken to hospital for observation. Further incidents/examples involved a child who previously lived at the home. This child went missing from the home and was known to be a victim of exploitation. Notifications were not sent to Ofsted and, despite the significant risk factors, leaders and managers said the incident was not serious. In addition, when the child set a fire in the home, this was also not reported. This failure to share information with all of the relevant people compromises the safety and welfare of the children. Furthermore, the regulator is unable to carry out its monitoring function to ensure that appropriate action is taken by the provider to safeguard children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Gaps were found in the staff’s professional supervision, including supervision for the newly appointed, inexperienced manager. The manager had not received appropriate support, such as having their professional development targets identified and promoted, in line with the company policy and procedures. This is despite previous compliance and enforcement action which identified shortfalls in the leadership and management of the home.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Rotas do not clearly identify the staff members on shift and the hours worked. This means that there is not a clear record of who has worked in the home with the children, which therefore compromises safeguarding.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

In Ofsted’s view, the shortfalls highlighted demonstrate poor leadership and management practice, and a lack of ability to take effective action to continuously improve the quality of care in the home. This has compromised the safety, experience and progress of the children who have lived in the home. Inspection report children’s home: SC457183 8

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Statutory requirements

This section sets out the actions that the registered person(s) must take to meet the Care Standards Act 2000, Children’s Homes (England) Regulations 2015 and the ‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’. The registered person(s) must comply within the given timescales.

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Requirement Due date

The quality and purpose of care standard is that children receive care from staff who—

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Requirement Due date

understand the children’s home’s overall aims and the outcomes it seeks to achieve for children;

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Requirement Due date

use this understanding to deliver care that meets children’s needs and supports them to fulfil their potential.

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to—

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Requirement Due date

provide for children living in the home the physical necessities they need in order to live there comfortably;

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Requirement Due date

ensure that the premises used for the purposes of the home are designed and furnished so as to—

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Requirement Due date

enable each child to participate in the daily life of the home. (Regulation 6 (1)(a)(b) (2)(b)(vii)(c)(i)(ii))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, maintenance issues, damage and repairs required in the home need to be rectified in a timely way. 11 June 2021

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Requirement Due date

The education standard is that children make measurable progress towards achieving their educational potential and are helped to do so.

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to ensure—

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Requirement Due date

that staff— 11 June 2021 Inspection report children’s home: SC457183 9 help each child to achieve the child’s education and training targets, as recorded in the child’s relevant plans;

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Requirement Due date

help each child who is above compulsory school age to participate in further education, training, or employment and to prepare for future care, education, or employment; and

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Requirement Due date

help each child to attend education or training in accordance with the expectations in the child’s relevant plans. (Regulation 8 (1) (2)(a)(i)(ix)(x))

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Requirement Due date

*The protection of children standard is that children are protected from harm and enabled to keep themselves safe.

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to ensure—

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Requirement Due date

assess whether each child is at risk of harm, taking into account information in the child’s relevant plans, and, if necessary, make arrangements to reduce the risk of any harm to the child;

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Requirement Due date

help each child to understand how to keep safe;

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Requirement Due date

have the skills to identify and act upon signs that a child is at risk of harm;

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Requirement Due date

understand the roles and responsibilities in relation to protecting children that are assigned to them by the registered person;

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Requirement Due date

that the home’s day-to-day care is arranged and delivered so as to keep each child safe and to protect each child effectively from harm. (Regulation 12 (1) (2)(a)(i)(ii)(iii)(v)(b))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, risk management plans need to be in place and contain effective strategies for staff to follow to safeguard children from key risks. Additionally, when a child is missing from the home, independent return home interviews need to be completed on the child’s return. 11 June 2021

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Requirement Due date

*The leadership and management standard is that the registered person enables, inspires, and leads a culture in relation to the children’s home that— 11 June 2021 Inspection report children’s home: SC457183 10 helps children aspire to fulfil their potential; and

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to—

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Requirement Due date

lead and manage the home in a way that is consistent with the approach and ethos, and delivers the outcomes, set out in the home’s statement of purpose;

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Requirement Due date

ensure that staff have the experience, qualifications, and skills to meet the needs of each child;

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Requirement Due date

understand the impact that the quality of care provided in the home is having on the progress and experiences of each child, and use this understanding to inform the development of the quality of care provided in the home;

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Requirement Due date

use monitoring and review systems to make continuous improvements in the quality of care provided in the home. (Regulation 13 (1)(a)(b) (2)(a)(c)(f)(h))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the manager must ensure that there is a suitably experienced, skilled and consistent team of staff, who understand the child’s needs and risks, working in the home. The manager needs to have effective monitoring and review systems in place in order to review the care practice in the home and ensure the child’s safety and welfare.

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Requirement Due date

*The care planning standard is that children—

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Requirement Due date

receive effectively planned care in or through the children’s home; and

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Requirement Due date

have a positive experience of arriving at or moving on from the home.

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to ensure—

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Requirement Due date

to manage and review the placement of each child in the home; and

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Requirement Due date

that each child’s relevant plans are followed. (Regulation 14 (1)(a)(b) (2)(b)(ii)(c)) 11 June 2021 Inspection report children’s home: SC457183 11 In particular, a robust impact risk assessment must be in place to ensure that only children whose needs the staff can meet live in the home.

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Requirement Due date

satisfy the requirements in paragraph (5)(a) to (c); and

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Requirement Due date

have the capacity, experience and skills to supervise the management of the home, or the homes, in respect of which the responsible individual is nominated. (Regulation 26 (7)(a)(b)) 11 June 2021

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Requirement Due date

A person may only manage a children’s home if—

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Requirement Due date

having regard to the size of the home, its statement of purpose, and the number and needs (including any needs arising from any disability) of the children—

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Requirement Due date

the person has the appropriate experience, qualification and skills to manage the home effectively and lead the care of children. (Regulation 28 (1)(b)(i)) 11 June 2021

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that all employees—

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Requirement Due date

receive practice-related supervision by a person with appropriate experience. (Regulation 33 (4)(b))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the manager requires regular supervision, in line with company policy. 11 June 2021

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Requirement Due date

Schedule 4 sets out the other information that the registered person must keep in relation to a children’s home.

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Requirement Due date

maintain in the home the records in Schedule 4;

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Requirement Due date

ensure that the records are kept up to date; and

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Requirement Due date

retain the records for at least 15 years from the date of the last entry. (Regulation 37 (1) (2)(a)(b)(c))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, rotas must contain the full names of the staff who work in the home and the actual hours worked. 11 June 2021 Inspection report children’s home: SC457183 12 *The registered person must notify HMCI and each other relevant person without delay if—

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Requirement Due date

a child is involved in or subject to, or is suspected of being involved in or subject to, sexual exploitation;

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Requirement Due date

an incident requiring police involvement occurs in relation to a child which the registered person considers to be serious;

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Requirement Due date

there is an allegation of abuse against the home or a person working there;

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Requirement Due date

a child protection enquiry involving a child—

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Requirement Due date

concludes (in which case, the notification must include the outcome of the child protection enquiry); or

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Requirement Due date

there is any other incident relating to a child which the registered person considers to be serious. (Regulation 40 (4)(a)(b)(c)(d)(i)(ii)(e)) 11 June 2021

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must review the appropriateness and suitability of the location of the premises used for the purposes of the children’s home at least once in each calendar year, taking into account the requirement in regulation 12(2)(c) (the protection of children standard).

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Requirement Due date

When conducting the review, the registered person must consult, and take into account the views of, each relevant person. (Regulation 46 (1) (2))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the manager needs to consult with external agencies to ensure that all known risks in the local area are assessed in line with a child’s risks and needs. 11 June 2021

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Requirement Due date

*These requirements are subject to a compliance notice. Inspection report children’s home: SC457183 13

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Information about this inspection

Inspectors have looked closely at the experiences and progress of children and young people, using the ‘Social care common inspection framework’. This inspection was carried out under the Care Standards Act 2000 to assess the effectiveness of the service, how it meets the core functions of the service as set out in legislation, and to consider how well it complies with the Children’s Homes (England) Regulations 2015 and the ‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’. Inspection report children’s home: SC457183 14

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Cambian Childcare Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Metropolitan House, 3 Darkes Lane, Potters Bar EN6 1AG

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Inspectors

Suzanne Birchall, Social Care Inspector Judith Birchall, Social Care Inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC457183 15 to achieve excellence in the care of children and young people, and in education and skills for learners of all ages. It regulates and inspects childcare and children’s social care, and inspects the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (Cafcass), schools, colleges, initial teacher training, further education and skills, adult and community learning, and education and training in prisons and other secure establishments. It assesses council children’s services, and inspects services for children looked after, safeguarding and child protection.

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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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Inspectors

T: 0300 123 1231 Textphone: 0161 618 8524 E: enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk W: www.gov.uk/ofsted

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